Rumour Mill-Laffs & Old Gold

Wolves are to test the resolve of fellow Championship side Burnley with a £4m bid for striker Kyle Lafferty according to the Daily Mirror today.

The club are getting to be experts at warding off bids for the Northern Ireland International following strong attempts to sign the player by both Rangers and Celtic in recent transfer windows. There was also specualtion in the last January window that Mick McCarthy had an interest in the player and wanted to bring the striker to Molineux.

It is also understood that Celtic and Rangers could also try once again to tempt the player away from Turf Moor. It will be interesting to see how much resolve Owen Coyle has this time to keep hold of the player and if he does go, maybe there will be an opportunity to negotiate a player-fee deal. Derek Riordan at Celtic for example has often been linked with the Clarets.

Writer:

turfmanphil

Date:

Thursday May 22 2008

Time:

9:03AM

Comments

Yep, but we did expect it. Hopefully we can see a bidding war occur with 3 clubs chasing him and then we can get the best deal possible. I would like him to stay, but 4 - 6 million would go a long way to help us put a strong enough squad together. Lafferty is all potential at the moment and may prove to be a dud which I doubt, but you never know. We have 2 or 3 young strikers coming through that may easily replace him in a year or two plus Berisha will be like a new signing for us. I don't think we will lack striking options this season or the next couple of seasons with the young prospects we have.

I think a player-fee deal would suit us better. Riordan for Lafferty plus cash? How about Eastwood or Bothroyd for Laffs? Our problem is for everyone we sell, we have to buy another just to keep pace with a squad that is still woefully small. Until Coyle can prove he can sign players to the club, that worries me!

It would be better for us, but I'm sure players at these clubs will be on higher wages than what we usually pay, so agreeing terms may be a problem. Riordan would probably be the easiest to agree with due to not getting any first team football.

Something is going to have to give if we are ever to avoid being midtable mediocrity; squad size and/or salary structure. If not then we should return to saying we havent got the money to match our ambition and stop providing false hopes. New dawn to false dawn?

According to Express&Star:
Wolves in move for Lafferty
Wolves have tempted Burnley with a £2.25m cash offer plus Stephen Elliott for forward Kyle Lafferty.
Boss Mick McCarthy hopes to bring a year-long chase for the Northern Ireland international to a close by beating off bids from Rangers and Celtic.
Rangers already have a £2.5m bid on the table for the 20-year-old, who is one of the hottest properties outside the Premier League.